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"Doesn't Time Warner realize that once subscribers sample free, over-the-air programming using the antenna, they may simply cancel cable?"

This might be the dumbest thing Steve Wexler has asked you to say! Yes, we're all going to give up cable just to watch WTMJ. Never mind that ESPN, USA, A&E, and others are NOT AVAILABLE over the air. I DO NOT subscribe to cable to watch TMJ, I subscribe for the 100's of other channels so that I DON'T Have to watch TMJ!

Nothing new here. Just Wexler making sure this stays in the "news". And still no one cares. No one misses Dirty Dining, Speed Busters and Mugshot of the Day. No one misses the last place NBC Primetime lineup. Spend less time on spin control and PR and more time on quality programming and maybe someone would actually miss Ch. 4.

Can we stop this "pennies a day" BS? I think you printed the toal dollar amount in another article, but to be fair, post it in every one. Isn't it $2.5 mil? That TWC is supposed to be paying YOU for allowing THEM to deliver an audience that generates YOUR ad revenue? A broadcast that is otherwise available for free to anyone who is not a cable company? Is TWC supposed to just write off the money? Multiply that by all the other ISNs and ITIs, and everyone wonders why cablr TV is expensive..

I can live with using an antenna the several nanoseconds I actually want to watch anything on TMJ.

Totally Agree, "pennies a day" is an insult to our intelligence. A 200% increase is ridiculous. No one would ever accept that in any business transaction. Why don't we make WTMJ a premium channel and see who wants to pay for the biased news reporting and weak programming.

Completely turned off by the PR machines both sides have unleashed on us. Banner ads at the top of jsonline, emails from TWC telling me all they're doing to "help" me through this "horrible ordeal." None of the arguments either side is making that blames the other is compelling to me. Both sides are wrong, both sides have been wronged by the other.

The observation by another commenter that this is similar to government infighting is apt. Stop bringing your troubles to the public, TWC and TMJ4, and figure this out between yourselves. Every day that this drags on is harming your corporate reputations (whatever), and the alienation of your customer base is going to be tough to turn back around.

Hate to tell you but have not missed WTMJ4 at all. Never watched it very much anyway. As far as the packer games go we always listen to Wayne Larivee anyway and watching it on Telemundo was not much different. WTMJ4 has become very liberal in their newscasts and therefore not worth watching. NBC programming has been in the pits for several years now - what's left?

TWC is taking a stand for all other cable/ satelite providers out there. TWC is going to set the market rate for ATT/DirecTV/Dish to follow. The reason this 'standoff' has lasted 29 days is solely because JC has COMPLETELY overvalued their value to the 300k TWC subscribers. TMJ4 is available over the air for 'free' to the end user. The fact that JC is asking for money from TWC for a product that is free is an issue onto itself. I understand the business of TV broadcasting has significantly changed, and the alphabet networks are now one of many, compared to the few pre mid-80's. The dual income stream (subscriber and ad revenue) cable only networks receive puts broadcast networks at a disadvantage on terms of revenue, but have the advantage of over the air broadcast abilities cable only networks lack. Because of the dual ability to receive TMJ's signal (broadcast and cable) JC has less leverage in a retransmission fee negotiation than cable only networks.

This whole 'blackout' is a just negotiation between two parties. Without an agreement in place TWC has no obligation to retransmit TMJ's signal, nor does TMJ have the right to require payment from TWC for retransmission. Furthermore, TWC has a national negotiation ongoing with CBS, which is of higher priority than a local dispute with JC. Moreover, to see the constant barrage of ads either on JC stations or this newspaper is to be expected, but nevertheless still appalling. This is a negotiation that JC took public in the hopes that the public would support a rate increase that will equate to millions of dollars increase to JC.

In my long range view, JC is desperate to be back on TWC by the start of sweeps because they need the audience numbers to set ad rates. TWC knows this and will hold to their number, forcing JC to settle. JC needs TWC more than TWC needs JC.

arbaird, I would have to say that WTMJ has been raped for their VALUABLE broadcast long enough. Honestly, you don't think broadcast organizations have expenses related to providing their content?? Would you want to give your services/goods away for free, when someone else can and is making money off of them, and then those people don't want to fairly compensate you? Over the air for free, yes, you can get that..(who needs cable anyway?),but the cable co's are making money off of WTMJ's broadcast, they are and have been charging you for it, and they don't want to fairly compensate WTMJ for something they've been making money off of for YEARS. TWC is NOTHING without the content they need to deliver to survive.